| foont said: @Squrl I think we might be saying the same thing. I meant that the image (removed from the context of the game's storyline), perpetuates and calls to mind a history of racial imagery. Like you said, it dehumanizes a culture. For my imaginary game-set-in-Poland example, let's pretend that the enemies are still zombies-- that doesn't make the image less offensive. Images can carry a lot of weight, symbolism, and meaning, and I think that's how the controversy over RE5 started. Here's an off-topic non-game example: I once went to a student art show, where the artist had arranged white pointed paper cones into a spiral shape on the floor. She thought it was just a pretty design, but it REALLY looked like a swastika made of Ku Klux hoods. She didn't mean for it to be offensive or racist, but it was possible to read the image that way, and people did. It's not her fault, but it didn't change the fact that a lot of people viewed it that way. Also, did you just imply that I'm a racist? :) Well, I hope I'm not, but I think we live in a world where racism still exists, so it's impossible for anyone, not to be inadvertently racist sometimes (other than a child as pure as fresh fallen snow, untainted by the world). |
Nope not implying that people are racists at all, but I do think that your honest attempt to combat one type of racism promotes another type of racism.
On the issue of imagery I would ask if people being offended is all that terrible? The very point I'm making is that there are things people view as racist within the context of their own views that are not implicitly racist and that they are in fact promoting racism in their attacks against it. If you are against racism you should be against the denigration of any and all skin colors....not just one at a time.
The overreaction and offense to certain, but not all, imagery is a roadblock to true equality, and people getting offended and then having a good honest debate is the only way people are going to figure out as a society which is which. And any time I see a situation where someone says, for example, it's not OK to use blacks in a situation I wonder why it's ok to use any other type of person...if we are equal then there should be no difference.
Yes there is strong emotional connections to issues, but you don't heal those issues by avoiding them and ignoring them. Like the emotional damage of someone you love dearly dying you have to deal with it and eventually move on. You can't break down into tears every time someone mentions them 15 years later. Everyone is so afraid of the "racists" label that they think it's much easier to just avoid the issue and to urge others to avoid the issue, than to actually deal with it.
 |
| To Each Man, Responsibility |
